Rodeo Legacy Lives on In Wessington Springs Family
Rodeo is a deep-rooted legacy for the Owen and Shannon Fagerhaug family.
Grandpa Lennis competed in calf roping while traveling the pro-rodeo circuit playing bass in the Kyle Evans and the Company Cowboys Band. (Evans is a stage name. Kyle and Lennis are brothers.)
Owen Fagerhaug was the 1995 State High School Rodeo Calf Roping Champion.
Shannon Greenfield served as the South Dakota State High School Rodeo Queen in 1996 and 1997.
Shannon and Owen met while competing on the South Dakota State University Rodeo Team together.
And today, their children, Ella, 18 and Wyatt, 14 continue the family rodeo tradition.
“What are our greatest rodeo successes? Ella and Wyatt are our greatest successes in and out of the arena,” Owen said.
With the 2026 South Dakota State High School Rodeo Finals set for next week, South Dakota Farmers Union caught up with the Fagerhaug family to learn their family’s rodeo story.
We are sitting in the Fagerhaugs’ kitchen visiting about the sport that has always been a part of this family’s life.
“I was roping at rodeos with Ella in my tummy,” Shannon said. “They traveled with us when we were actively rodeoing – we had good strollers with big tires and a pack and play in the horse trailer.”
“There are a lot of photos of us playing in the mud at rodeos,” Ella added. “We grew up knowing we’d rodeo.”
“Today, we are the ones tagging along and they are in the arena,” Shannon said.
“They have different horses for different events, so we are busy making sure their horse and tack are ready,” Owen said.
Owen added that from the start he and Shannon’s passion for rodeo played a role in their major life decisions.
“We made sure to live on a place where we could have the horses and we chose careers that would allow us to take time away for rodeo,” Owen explained.
Owen works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency and Shannon is a registered nurse and today works as the Jerauld County Auditor.
The couple and their children do run some cattle with Lennis and Peggy’s herd, but as Shannon explained, “our off-farm jobs keep us from 100-percenting as cattle producers.”
My Horse is my Teammate
Owen and Shannon built their home on Owen’s family’s Wessington Springs cattle operation in 2019. It sits just across the shelter belt from Lennis and Peggy’s home, which is on the site where Owen’s great-grandparents Arnt and Ella Fagerhaug homesteaded after immigrating from Norway.
Alongside Lennis’ cow-calf herd, there’s plenty of pasture for the Quarter horses the family raises and trains.
“We’ve had some good rodeo success on the horses we have raised and trained,” said Shannon who grew up near Beresford training horses with her parents Jill and Robert. “Because we have handled them since they were babies, we know every vice. We know the pressure points. We know what they will tolerate or not tolerate – and the same goes for them. The horses know they can trust us.”
Trust between horse and rider is essential, Wyatt explained.
“Your horse is your teammate,” said Wyatt, who competes in multiple events – breakaway, team roping, tie down, goat tying and ribbon roping. “You have to have trust and faith that your horse will do their job, and the horse needs to trust that you will do your job.”
Currently Joe, a 20-year-old bay gelding, is Wyatt’s No. 1 teammate.
This spring Joe and Wyatt qualified for the Junior High School National Finals Rodeo in tie down and ribbon roping. June 21-28 they will travel together to Guthrie, Oklahoma.
“Joe works the rope and will score for me. He is honest and trustworthy,” Wyatt said of Joe keeping tension on the rope while he dismounts to tie the calf’s legs. “Without Joe’s help, it would be just me versus the calf. And the calf would win.”
Wyatt and Joe’s qualifying time was 12.34 seconds.
Ella also has great respect for her breakaway horse, Socks.
“I’ve been roping on him since he was four. He is six now, so we have learned how to work well together,” explained Ella, who competes in breakaway roping, goat tying, barrel racing and team roping events. “There have definitely been some learning curves, but he is consistent to his spot and stops sharp.”
Jackrabbit Rodeo
Socks’ ability to consistently get Ella in a good position to rope the calf quickly is valuable. And he will have many more opportunities to compete with her they will be moving to South Dakota State University together this fall. The 2026 Wessington Springs Valedictorian recently signed a Letter of Intent with the Jackrabbit Rodeo Team.
Ella will compete in barrels, goat tying and breakaway events.
“I’m excited to get to know kids who are like me and make some friendships will probably last me a lifetime. I look at my parents and they are still really close with all the people they college rodeoed with,” Ella said.
Shannon can relate. “It is fun to have your own group to identify with and go to practices with and hang out with on the weekends,” said Shannon, reflecting on her SDSU Rodeo Team experience.
Shannon and Owen remain connected to the rodeo friends they made on the SDSU team. In fact, Ella is going to room with the daughter of a rodeo friend who Shannon roomed with in college.
“We have this big friend group from when we college rodeoed and now, we get to rub shoulders with them again as we watch our kids rodeo,” Owen said.
The large network of friends she has developed throughout her years in rodeo is something Ella values.
“One of the biggest takeaways I have about rodeo, is rodeo is a community. Everyone is so supportive of each other,” Ella said. “Yes, it is competitive, but we support each other.”
Shannon agreed. “We all know how much work it takes to get to the point of success, so we are happy for everyone who put in the time and effort it takes,” Shannon said.
Grandma Peggy the Un-Official Timekeeper
Building trust between horse and rider, and mastering rodeo events takes time, so the family invests hours each week practicing. In the summer they spend time each evening in the arena just half a mile south of Lennis and Peggy’s calving pasture.
During the school year, they drive 19 miles into Wessington Springs and join their friends and cousins to practice in the Jerauld County 4-H arena.
While other sports don’t require parental participation, with rodeo it’s all-hands-on-deck.
“We push the calves into the chute or hold the calves or goats until they are ready,” Shannon said. “We enjoy being hands-on with our kids. Yes, we may get after each other once in a while but mostly we enjoy spending time together.”
Even Lennis and Peggy get involved. Peggy is known to all her grandchildren as the unofficial timekeeper.
“She attends every rodeo and she writes down everyone’s time in the program. I will know if I qualify for the State High School Finals before its announced because Grandma Peggy will have the times written down,” Ella said.
Peggy’s talent for timekeeping is a wonderful memento – she saves all the programs for all the grandkids.
Like Ella and Wyatt, most of Peggy and Lennis’ grandchildren rodeo. “There’s a lot of rodeo and horse talk at holiday dinners,” Owen said.
To celebrate fifty years together, Peggy and Lennis asked their children to host a Grandkids Rodeo.
“I made back numbers using our birthdays,” Ella said. “And grandma and grandpa invited friends to watch.”
Held in the Fagerhaug Ranch Arena, Peggy and Lennis’ grandkids competed in goat tying, calf roping, barrels and poles.
“Rodeo is a family legacy and each of our families continue to support it for the next generation,” Shannon said.
–South Dakota Farmers Union
